3 perlepigraphs - list of Perl release epigraphs
7 Many Perl release announcements included an I<epigraph>, a short excerpt
8 from a literary or other creative work, chosen by the pumpking or
9 release manager. This file assembles the known list of epigraph for
12 I<Note>: these have also been referred to as <epigrams>, but the
13 definition of I<epigraph> is closer to the way they have been used.
14 Consult your favorite dictionary for details.
18 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 'The Matrix'
20 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
24 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
26 Trinity: What did you just say?
27 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
28 Trinity: What did you see?
29 Cypher: What happened?
30 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
31 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
32 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
33 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
35 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
37 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
39 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
42 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
43 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
44 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
47 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
48 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
50 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
51 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
54 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
56 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
58 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
59 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
60 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
61 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
62 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
63 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
64 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
65 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
66 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
67 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
69 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
70 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
71 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
72 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
73 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
74 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
76 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
77 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
78 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
79 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
82 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
84 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
85 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
86 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
87 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
89 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
90 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
91 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
92 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
95 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
97 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
100 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
101 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
103 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
105 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
107 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
108 with his nose, you know?'
110 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
111 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
113 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
115 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
116 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
117 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
118 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
119 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
121 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
122 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
123 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
124 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
125 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
126 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
127 had ever even been a car.
129 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
130 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
131 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
132 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
135 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
136 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
137 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
138 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
140 It should have fallen apart miles back.
142 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
144 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
145 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
146 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
147 there exist ... special circumstances.
149 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
151 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
152 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
153 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
154 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
155 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
156 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
157 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
159 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
161 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
162 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
163 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
164 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
165 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
166 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
167 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
169 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
170 volcano were once more to set to work."
172 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
174 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
175 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
176 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs—
177 what we might call ice-one—is only one of several types of ice.
178 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
179 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
180 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
181 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine—a crystal as
182 hard as this desk—with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
183 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
186 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
188 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
189 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
190 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
193 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
194 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
195 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
196 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
198 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
200 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
201 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
202 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
203 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
204 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
205 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
206 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
207 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
209 Around and around and around we spin,
210 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
212 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
214 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
215 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
216 your cat grins like that?'
218 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
220 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
221 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
222 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
224 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
225 that cats COULD grin.'
227 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
229 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
231 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
234 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
235 there was silence for some minutes.
237 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
239 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
240 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
241 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
242 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
243 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
244 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
246 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
248 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
249 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
250 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
251 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
252 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
254 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
255 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
256 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
257 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
258 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
259 Mercia and Northumbria—"'
261 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no epigraph
265 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
267 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
268 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
269 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
270 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
273 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
274 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
275 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
276 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
277 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
278 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
279 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
280 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
281 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
282 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
283 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
285 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
286 in the world she was to get out again.
288 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
292 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
294 A little child, a limber elf,
295 Singing, dancing to itself,
296 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
297 That always finds, and never seeks,
298 Makes such a vision to the sight
299 As fills a father's eyes with light;
300 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
301 Upon his heart, that he at last
302 Must needs express his love's excess
303 With words of unmeant bitterness.
304 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
305 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
306 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
307 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
308 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
309 At each wild word to feel within
310 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
311 And what, if in a world of sin
312 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
313 Such giddiness of heart and brain
314 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
315 So talks as it's most used to do.
317 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
319 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
320 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
321 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
322 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
323 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
324 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
325 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
326 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
327 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
329 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
331 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
332 course you'd druther work—wouldn't you? Course you would!"
334 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
336 "Why ain't that work?"
338 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
339 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
341 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
343 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
344 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
346 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
347 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
348 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
349 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
350 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
353 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
355 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
356 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
357 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
358 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
359 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
360 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
361 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
362 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
363 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
364 however much they're into colour.
366 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
368 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
369 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
370 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
371 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
372 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
373 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
374 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
375 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
376 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Mil
377 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
378 for more hazardous assignment.
380 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
382 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
383 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
384 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
385 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
386 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
387 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
388 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
389 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
390 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
391 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
392 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
396 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
398 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
399 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
400 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
401 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
402 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
403 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
404 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
405 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
406 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
407 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
409 'Can they all type?' I joked.
411 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
412 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
414 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
415 'We could have opened an agency.'
417 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
418 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
419 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
420 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
422 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
423 replied. 'Not quite all.'
425 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
429 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
433 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
435 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
436 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
437 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
438 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
439 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
440 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
441 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
443 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
447 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
451 =head2 v5.9.5 - no epigraph
455 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
459 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
463 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
465 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
466 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
467 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
468 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
469 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
470 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
471 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
472 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
473 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
474 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
475 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
476 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
477 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
478 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
479 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
481 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
482 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
483 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
485 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
486 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
487 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
488 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
491 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
493 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
495 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
497 What of October, that ambiguous month
499 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
501 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
502 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
503 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
504 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
505 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
507 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
509 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
510 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
512 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
513 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
514 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
515 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
517 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
518 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
519 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
520 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
521 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
522 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
523 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
524 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
526 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
527 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
529 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
530 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
531 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
532 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
533 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
534 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
535 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
536 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
537 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
538 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
540 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
541 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
542 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
544 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
545 pushing to increase the membership?
547 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
548 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
549 futile and impotent it becomes.'
551 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
553 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
554 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
556 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
558 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
559 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
560 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
561 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
562 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
564 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
565 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
566 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
567 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
568 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
571 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
572 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
573 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
575 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
576 redundancy payments as well.'
578 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
579 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
581 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
583 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
585 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
586 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
587 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
590 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
592 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
593 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
594 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
595 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
596 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
597 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
598 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
600 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
601 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
602 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
603 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
604 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
605 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
606 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
607 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
609 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
610 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
612 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
613 name like Charlie Umtali?
615 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
616 know something about our official visitor.
618 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
619 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
620 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
621 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
622 knew little of his background.
624 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
625 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
626 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
628 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
632 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
633 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
634 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
636 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
637 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
639 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
640 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
641 revolving door and comes out in front.'
643 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
645 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
647 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
649 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
651 It's not that easy bein' green
652 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
653 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
654 Or something much more colorful like that
656 It's not easy bein' green
657 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
658 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
659 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
662 But green's the color of Spring
663 And green can be cool and friendly-like
664 And green can be big like an ocean
665 Or important like a mountain
668 When green is all there is to be
669 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
670 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
671 And I think it's what I want to be
673 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
675 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
677 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
679 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
681 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
682 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
685 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
686 the wolf? What then?"
688 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
690 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
691 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
692 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
694 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
695 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
696 climbed up the high stone wall.
698 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
699 stretched out over the wall.
701 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
702 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
703 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
705 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
706 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
708 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
709 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
711 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
713 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
716 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
718 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
719 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
720 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
722 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
724 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
727 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
728 grow up into a beehive."
730 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
732 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
733 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
734 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
736 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
738 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
739 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
740 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
742 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
744 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
746 "Hunting," said Pooh.
750 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
752 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
754 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
756 "What do you think you'll answer?"
758 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
759 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
762 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
763 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
765 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
767 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
768 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
769 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
770 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
771 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
772 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
775 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
776 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
777 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
778 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
779 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
780 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
781 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
782 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
783 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
784 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
786 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
788 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
789 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
790 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
791 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
792 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
794 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
795 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
796 Caledonia and South America.
798 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
800 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
801 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
802 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
803 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
804 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
805 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
806 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
808 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
809 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
810 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
811 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
813 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
814 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
815 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
816 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
818 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
819 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
821 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
823 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
824 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
825 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
826 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
828 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
829 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
830 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
831 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
832 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
833 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
834 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
835 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
837 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
838 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
841 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
843 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
844 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
845 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
846 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
848 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
849 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
850 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
851 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
852 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
853 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
855 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
857 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
858 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
859 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
860 We must find him of the train can't start.'
861 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
862 They are searching high and low,
863 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
864 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
865 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
866 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
867 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
868 He's been busy in the luggage van!
869 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
870 And the the signal goes 'All Clear!'
871 And we're off at last of the northern part
872 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
874 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
876 We are the music makers,
877 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
878 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
879 And sitting by desolate streams; --
880 World-losers and world-forsakers,
881 On whom the pale moon gleams:
882 Yet we are the movers and shakers
883 Of the world for ever, it seems.
885 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
887 There may be trouble ahead,
888 But while there's music and moonlight,
889 And love and romance,
890 Let's face the music and dance.
892 Before the fiddlers have fled,
893 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
894 And while we still have that chance,
895 Let's face the music and dance.
897 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
898 Humming a different tune, and then,
900 There may be teardrops to shed,
901 So while there's music and moonlight,
902 And love and romance,
903 Let's face the music and dance.
905 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
907 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
908 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
909 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
910 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
911 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
912 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
914 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
915 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
916 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
917 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
920 O farther farther sail!
921 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
922 O farther, farther, farther sail!
924 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
926 It's fun to charter an accountant
927 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
928 To find, explore the funds offshore
929 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
931 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
933 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
934 In a Sieve they went to sea:
935 In spite of all their friends could say,
936 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
937 In a Sieve they went to sea!
938 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
939 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
940 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
941 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
942 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
944 Far and few, far and few,
945 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
946 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
947 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
949 =head2 v5.8.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Color of Magic"
951 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
953 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
955 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
956 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
957 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
958 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
959 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
960 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
961 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
962 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
963 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
964 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
966 "All that?" said Twoflower.
970 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
972 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
973 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
974 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
975 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
976 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
978 =head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
980 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
981 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
982 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
983 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
984 long in this instance.
986 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
988 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
990 =head2 5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
994 =head2 5.005_04 - no epigraph
998 =head2 5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
1000 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
1001 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
1002 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
1003 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
1004 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
1005 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
1006 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
1007 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
1008 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
1009 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
1012 =head2 5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1014 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
1015 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
1016 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
1017 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
1018 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
1019 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
1020 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
1021 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
1022 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
1023 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
1026 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1028 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
1029 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
1030 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>